This invention relates to an immproved flow control valve assembly and more particularly to an improved flow control arrangement adapted to be used in connection with base mounted fluid systems.
The use of base mounted valves and their advantages are well known. With such fluid systems, a valve base is provided in which flow passages are formed. Various valving elements and fluid system components may be mounted to these bases so as to afford the desired fluid connections while limiting the use of external piping. Although such arrangements are particularly advantageous in reducing complexity of the plumping of the system, they do have some disadvantages because of their inherent compactness. Many times it is necessary to embody a throttle arrangement in one or more of the fluid lines for controlling air flow and, accordingly, speed of reaction of the system or for other purposes. With the base mounted valve assemblies of the type heretofore known, such throttling has been achieved by the use of a special valve base that employes throttling passages having flow controlling needle valves or the like. Obviously, the necessity of coring the valve bodies to form such passages adds greatly to their expense. Furthermore, in many instances the valve itself is not readily accessible due to the compact arrangement of the fluid system. That is, it is necessary or desirable to have the actuator for the valve element disposed at the front of the valve body so that adjustments may be easily made and associated components will not block the adjusting elements. In many instances there are two or more flow controlling valve assemblies in a given valve base. With such an arrangement it is obviously important that the operators for each of these valve may be conveniently accessed. It is particularly desirable if all of the valve actuators are disposed at one end of the valve body. With previously proposed constructions, this has not been possible. In addition to the aforenoted defects, the use of special coring gives rise to flow restrictions which, under some circumstances, are not desirable.
It is, therefore, a principal object of this invention to provide an improved flow control assembly for use with base mounted valves.
It is another object of this invention to provide a simplified low cost and yet highly effective valve assembly.
It is another object of this invention to provide an improved valve assembly wherein throttling is possible while at the same time maximum flow capabilities are not adversely affected.
It is another object of this invention to provide a flow control valve assembly wherein the valve operator is positioned to be readily accessible for adjustment.